So here is the story with Crystal and the candlelight vigil/memorial that I am planning. On Tuesday March 2, 2010 I attempted to go to bed around 11:30-11:45 pm. I kept feeling like something wasn't right, but I didn't know why. I remember laying there in bed with this horrible feeling in my stomach that something wasn't right. Well I eventually fell asleep around 12:45-1:00 am. At 1:50 am I received a phone call from my sister. I figured she just couldn't sleep so I let it go to voicemail, especially since I had just fallen asleep. She kept calling, so I finally answered on the 3rd call. I was extremely irritated and just wanted her to leave me alone so I could sleep, afterall I had to be up at 6:30 am for work. She told me that I needed to get dressed and come to town. I live 30 minutes away from all of my family, so it's usually a big deal if they tell me I need to come to town. Well me being irritated, I asked why and told her I was sleeping. She told me something had happened to my cousin Crystal and I needed to come to town immediately.
For those who don't know, Crystal is my closest relative...period. My mom, Linda, is her mom, Mary's, older sister (there are also 3 other sisters and 2 brothers)...and they are extremely close. So Crystal and I have been best friends all of our life and share almost every major event together. She is more like a sister than a cousin.
So my sister is crying and keeps telling me something bad happened and to come to town. At this point I'm concerned and asked what happened (my family is prone to being dramatic so I wanted to know if I really needed to come to town now or wait till morning). She is crying hysterically and I can't understand her, so I become more irritated. She tells me that Crystal was hurt and I needed to just come to town. Finally I tell her to put my mom on the phone and asked what happened. My mom tells me that Crystal was shot and it's really bad, so she needed me to come to town. At this point I knew it was bad because my mom was crying. She told me that they were all going to meet at her house, so I needed to meet her there. I couldn't figure out why they weren't going to the hospital, but I told her I'd meet her at the house. I started calling my brother, who lived with Crystal, to see where he was. He told me he was at mom's house and to just meet him there. So I throw on some close, throw in my contacts and race out the door. The entire 30 minute drive I just prayed and prayed that she would be okay and that she wasn't hurt badly. By the time I made it to my mom's house, my sister and my brother's girlfriend were waiting outside for me. I started to walk up to the house (keep in mind it's around 2:30am) and they immediately told me she was gone. They told me she had been shot in her car at an apartment complex and she was dead. Here I'm being told that someone I had just seen on Sunday was gone. She had been shot in her car and was gone. I was never going to be able to hear her voice again and her three boys would never see their mommy again.
Needless to say I had to help break the news to her best friend and many family members...but the hardest thing to do was help tell her 7 year old son that someone had hurt his mommy and she was in heaven. To top everything off, we had to fight SRS and the court to keep the boys with family instead of putting them in a foster home, plus the police were telling the details of the case to anyone willing to listen...including the media. The police had informed the media before we even had a chance to notify all of our family members. My nephew and Crystal's oldest son were in the same class together at their elementary school...and my nephew had to find out from other kids at school before we could tell him. We were trying to let the kids all finish the school day before we told them, but we ended up picking them up 30 minutes after school started and having to tell them anyway.
So Crystal was in her car at an apartment complex. We don't know why she was there, who she was with, etc...but she was shot multiple times at close range. The killer is still at large and as far as we know the police don't have a clue about anything to do with her case. In my opinion they are looking at her for the criminal record she had and not caring about solving her murder. So March 2nd we are planning on having a memorial for our family members at the cemetery and a candlelight vigil at the murder site for friends and family. Given that I helped my aunt do a lot for the funeral arrangements, it's only natural that I would help plan the memorial and candlelight vigil as well. We are hoping to get some media attention to get the police to start working on the case again, so if anyone has any suggestions on how to do that....please let me know.
